Defensive strength
Defensive Strength (DS) is the numerical value subtracted from an attack roll due to a character's defenses. This includes bonuses from the defender's skills in evading, blocking, and parrying attacks, their combat stance, their active spells, any enchantments that may be on their equipment, as well as environmental factors such as exceptionally bright or dark rooms.
Formulas
Defensive Strength Formula:
| Total Defensive Strength = Generic Defense + Evade Defense + Block Defense + Parry Defense |
To calculate a character's Defensive Strength, one adds the values from the categories listed above. Formulas for each type of defense can be found on the following articles:
- Evade
- Block
- Parry - defense for one-handed weapons
- Art of the Bow (guide) - parry defense for ranged weapons
- Two Weapon Combat - parry defense for offhand weapons
- Runestaff - parry defense for staff users derived from magic skills
Generic Defense
Generic defense consists of the defender's active spells/maneuvers and the environmental conditions of the room.
Some spells, such as Elemental Defense I, add a flat DS bonus against all attacks. Other spells, such as Spirit Warding I, add a bonus against specific types of attacks (in this case, against magical bolts). And still others contribute instead to evade, block, or parry defenses: for example, Mass Blur adds to evade defense, which can result in a different final bonus based on whether the defender is wearing heavy armor or holding a shield (less evade defense for larger shields).
Environmental Conditions
| Condition | Effect | LM SENSE messaging |
|---|---|---|
| Average | +0 DS | pretty average lighting |
| Bright | -10 DS | extremely bright |
| Dark | +20 DS | rather dark |
| Foggy | +30 DS | pretty foggy |
Status Conditions
- sitting/kneeling/prone: -50 DS penalty, and reduced chance for an outright evade/block/parry (-25% if sitting/kneeling, -50% if prone)
- stunned: -20 DS penalty, -50% reduced chance for an outright evade/block/parry
- immobilized (bound)/webbed - -50 DS penalty, cannot evade or parry